Iran nuclear report: Britain and France push for new sanctions

Iran came under mounting diplomatic pressure on Wednesday following a UN
report that it may be trying to develop nuclear weapons, with Britain and
France issuing a joint statement calling for new and strong sanctions.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad greets crowds in the city of Shahrekord yesterday, where he said in a speech that Iran would not retreat over its nuclear programmePhoto: AFP/GETTY

Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said UN sanctions on "an unprecedented scale" were appropriate and called for a swift meeting of the UN Security Council, which has already imposed four sets of sanctions on Iran.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said the dispute with Iran was "entering a dangerous phase".

"The longer Iran goes on pursuing a nuclear weapons programme without responding adequately to calls for negotiations from the rest of us, the greater the risk of a conflict as a result," he said.

The Government will shortly reveal additional unilateral sanctions against the Iranian financial sector, the oil and gas sector, and "entities and individuals involved with their nuclear programme", he told Parliament. The US said it is looking at ways to put "additional pressure" on Tehran.

Iran vowed it "will not budge an iota" from its nuclear path and Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, said Iran would retaliate by suspending access to parts of its nuclear facility that it regards as voluntary.

"The UN atomic watchdog should not become a subsidiary of the Security Council publishing false accusations dictated from New York and Washington," he said.

He said that Yukiya Amano, the IAEA's director general, had acted in bad faith by pursuing an agenda to smear Iran.

David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who heads a counter-proliferation think tank in Washington, estimated that Iranian nuclear researchers are working towards a weapon with a yield of approximately four kilotons – about a quarter of the size of the bombs dropped on Japan.

Smaller than any weapon tested by a recognised nuclear power to date, it would still be capable of mass devastation. The 12-18 kiloton bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima at the end of World War II claimed 130,000 lives, and the slightly larger device detonated over Nagasaki killed between 80,000 to 90,000 people.

Mr Albright said that judging from the diameter of the so-called R265 detonator developed by Iran with the help of a former Soviet scientist, and the weapon design acquired from AQ Khan, Pakistan's nuclear bomb creator, the Iranians were aiming to assemble a small warhead that could be detonated hundreds of feet above the ground.

"Typically what you would expect is four kilotons or so, in that order," he said. Tests carried out by Pakistan in 1999 "were not high yields," he added, suggesting that designs provided by Khan to Tehran were of a similar magnitude.

The report released on Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed that Iranian researchers had run computer models to estimate the "nuclear explosive yield".

Mr Albright's Institute for Science and International Security performs analysis of nuclear programmes around the world, often using IAEA data.

The IAEA'S conclusion that aspects of the Iranian nuclear programme were "specific" to nuclear weapons broke new ground for the agency, which has previously only expressed concern about "possible" military use.

Its wording was strong enough to prompt Western leaders to call for expanded sanctions against Iran.

After the 25-page report had been digested in world capitals, the familiar divisions over Iran among world powers quickly reappeared yesterday. Russia and China made their opposition to new sanctions clear.

"Any additional sanctions against Iran will be seen in the international community as an instrument for regime change in Iran. That approach is unacceptable to us," said Gennady Gatilov, Russia's deputy foreign minister.

Russia, which has significant trade ties with Iran and built its first nuclear power station, accepts that the West has legitimate concerns about Iran's nuclear programme but sees no clear evidence that Tehran is trying to develop a nuclear warheads.

The Chinese foreign ministry reiterated a call to resolve the row through talks.

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has said all options are on the table, including a military one.